Forbidden City, Kunning Palace.

"Is there anything special about General Zhu?" Empress Zhou asked curiously, and she couldn't help but hold Chongzhen's hand tightly.

"Empress, don't worry, and listen to me slowly......" Looking at Empress Zhou's worried eyes, Emperor Chongzhen patted his beloved wife's hand and said comfortingly:

"This Zhu Daolin is a Taoist background, he began to travel the world when he was a teenager, and he traveled tens of thousands of miles to learn a skill, with extraordinary business talent, through the relationship between overseas Song Dynasty immigrants and Nanyang Franco merchants, let him toss left and right, and earn tens of millions of family businesses."

"So, he doesn't need to worry about money, and he is now my Ming military attaché, not a civilian official, he doesn't have to ask anyone except me, he poured out his money to recruit soldiers for me, train the new army, and reorganize the sailors, not only did he not spend a penny on me and the imperial court, but he successively contributed millions of taels of silver to me in copper, artillery and various items, he didn't ask for anything to the Manchu Dynasty."

Therefore, the Manchu Dynasty civil and military forces are helpless against him, to put it mildly, one day he will be annoyed and leave the pick, and he can still go overseas to be his rich man, no one can do anything about him, only I can subdue him, and only I can let him display his ambition and talent! So, the queen understands, right? ”

Empress Zhou nodded with relief: "I understand, this General Zhu is really a maverick, it's quite interesting." ”

Emperor Chongzhen laughed, and when he saw the shadows of the two familiar outside, he let go of the queen's hand and commanded loudly: "Wang Chengen, Lao Cao, what are you doing sneakily?" Something came in and reported. ”

Wang Chengen and Cao Huachun hurriedly bent down and bowed respectfully to Empress Zhou, and then Cao Huachun reported the situation: "Holy Lord, General Zhu is after noon." I took a few personal guards to the Chengjia Garden in Houhai in a carriage, and did not come out after entering, and then Li Jinrong, a wealthy businessman in Baoding, Zhang Mulian, a wealthy businessman in Datong, and Liu Weiyi, a wealthy businessman in Beijing, rushed to Chengjia Garden successively. ”

It wasn't until the sun went down that General Zhu left Houhai in a carriage and returned to Guanglu Temple under the escort of the four Cheng family father and son and a group of wealthy merchants. told Zhao Huaizhong that he would leave Beijing early tomorrow morning and return home, and instructed Zhao Huaizhong to inform the people of our silver bureau to go to Tongzhou together tomorrow morning and transport 200,000 catties of copper back. ”

Emperor Chongzhen asked suspiciously, "What did he talk about with those rich businessmen?" ”

"The servants inquired about two things, one is that Zhu Daolin has negotiated with the Cheng family to jointly fund the establishment of a large commercial bank, the name has been chosen, called 'Sihai Commercial Bank', respectively in Beijing, Tongzhou, Tianjin, Qingdao Wei, Baoshan Port, Yingzhou Tamsui Port and Jinling set up branches, mainly dealing in local products, timber, medicinal materials, sulfur, minerals and grain. The Li family in Baoding, the Zhang family in Datong, and the Liu family in Beijing have all decided to invest in the shares, and it is not yet known who holds how many shares. ”

Cao Huachun reported the situation to Emperor Chongzhen in detail, but concealed that all the information came from the conversation between Zhu Daolin and Zhao Huaizhong.

Emperor Chongzhen was greatly relieved: "This guy can really toss, what about the second one?" ”

Cao Huachun hurriedly replied: "The second thing is a bit surprising, General Zhu decided to borrow 2 million taels of silver from the Beijing Bofu Money Village to buy wheat, peanuts, sesame, beans and other things, and set up a large grain workshop at the mouth of the Sancha River in Tianjin to grind wheat into flour. Processing and making shortbread, peanut oil, sesame oil, military rations, and other materials, but also in the entire Zhili ground to buy war horses, mules and horses, cattle, furs, copper and iron, lead and tin, and shipbuilding timber to sell to the south of the Yangtze River. And it is purchased for a long time through the newly established Sihai Trading Company. ”

Emperor Chongzhen couldn't sit still: "Isn't he worried about causing the price of the entire Zhili ground to skyrocket?" He is such a smart person, he can't not know such a simple truth, does he have other deep meanings? ”

Wang Chengen added: "The slave once heard Wu Gonggong in Nanjing mention that Zhu Daolin was very dissatisfied with the Shanxi merchants transporting salt, iron and grain to Liaodong and Liaoxi, and more than once lashed out in public for Shanxi merchants only having money in their eyes and no conscience. He also said that it was precisely because Shanxi merchants wantonly smuggled salt, iron and grain that they brought about a bad atmosphere in the border army and boosted the strength of the Manchu Tartars. ”

The slave thought that General Zhu was right, not only the atmosphere of the border army had long been corrupted. Together with the minions of our inner court stationed in the nine border towns as supervisors, they have also learned badly. ”

Emperor Chongzhen's hard-won good mood suddenly vanished, his face was blue and angry, and he almost gritted his teeth and ordered in a deep voice:

"Immediately give me a thorough investigation of the border pass and the enemy, the border army will be investigated by Lao Cao and Jinyiwei, and Wang Chengen, the large and small prison army sent by the inner court, you will be responsible, investigate thoroughly inside and out, find one and kill the other, and never tolerate it!"

"Yes!"

Wang Chengen and Cao Huachun respectfully received the order.

Cao Huachun hesitated for a moment and asked in a low voice: "Holy Lord, does General Zhu still need to be monitored?" ”

Chongzhen thought for a moment and made a decision: "There is no need to monitor for the time being, since he leaves Beijing tomorrow morning, it means that he has returned to his heart like an arrow, and he must go back to prepare to lead the army to the north, but I must order your secret agents stationed in Jinling from Dongchang to pay close attention, I must know that Zhu Daolin and Jinling Xungui's every move, as well as Baoshanwei, which is about to start construction on a large scale, must send competent people to be stationed for a long time, and closely monitor the situation of Baoshan Weishui Division and sea trade, and must be sure to have a bottom in mind." ”

"Do you need to send someone over there from Yingzhou?" Cao Huachun, who was as careful as a hair, asked in a low voice.

Emperor Chongzhen hesitated again, and after thinking about it for a long time, he still didn't see the important strategic position of Yingzhou Island, and also underestimated Zhu Daolin's wealth and ability:

"Yingzhou is temporarily put aside, Zhu Daolin led his troops to the north to fight this time, it will cost at least 500,000 taels of silver, plus to rebuild Dongjiang Town, appease tens of thousands of soldiers and tens of thousands of families in Dongjiang Town, no million taels of silver can't be done, and he has joined forces with several wealthy businessmen in the local and surrounding areas to open a large commercial house, I'm afraid the silver in his pocket is almost spent, otherwise where can he borrow 2 million taels from Bofu Bank?"

"In this way, I'm afraid that Yingzhou Island won't be able to invest much silver, and it won't be able to become a climate for at least two years, so don't worry about the remote Yingzhou Island for the time being, Baoshan Port is the top priority, and his coastal defense governor's yamen will be located in Baoshanwei."

"Got it!"

Cao Huachun bowed deeply and quietly retreated with Wang Chengen.

Early the next morning, Zhu Daolin and the British Duke, Chengguo Gong and other nobles in Beijing and a group of gentlemen who came to see him off, took two horses from the Western Regions presented by the emperor, followed Zhao Huaizhong, who needed to return to Jinling, and Liu Guojian, the imperial horse supervisor who was responsible for receiving copper materials, and other eunuchs, under the escort of 300 cavalry, they left the capital and rushed to Tongzhou.

Two 500-ton converted cargo ships transporting 200,000 catties of copper arrived in Tongzhou yesterday afternoon.

The 200 tons of pig iron, furs, and medicinal materials purchased by Bofu Money on behalf of Bofu Qian Zhuang were loaded onto two 300-ton warships yesterday, leaving more than 300 good horses to wait for the 500-ton converted cargo ship.

At present, only Zhu Daolin owned two large cargo ships specializing in transporting horses and livestock in the entire Ming Dynasty, and these two cargo ships were sold to Zhu Daolin by the Portuguese. (To be continued.) )